Heh heh, no problem! Having the thing be modular in 1-deck units is a great idea. And it looks like you've already thought of the other idea I had, which is to have the thing be connectable on all four sides, that way people can construct a deck display in any shape they want, be it square or rectangular, or round or triangular or whatever.

As for getting the product made for a decent price, injection molding is the way to go. Once you get past the tooling costs, which aren't much at all, you can crank these out for very cheap. Create a 3D model of the thing, have a few of them rapid prototyped in ABS plastic, test them out for connectivity and fit, then you can commit to getting the injection molds made. Here are some links to shops that can do the prototyping and injection molding for you:

www.approto.com

www.protomold.com

www.quickparts.com

That's great, Zaid!
I can see the changes. Pretty good job! Congrats.
Pledged

Thank you for your support! We've already hit more than 10% funding in less than 24 hours, so it's a good start. I hope it keeps up at this pace because that will be what's necessary to make this thing fly this time.

It's an interesting concept, one that's not done often.  But if you want even a slim chance of be taken seriously, you have to ditch terms like "digitally painted in hyper reality."  It's adspeak for "we want to sound really cool right now but aren't quite sure of what to say", which gets translated by the readers to "they don't know what the hell they're talking about..."

It's digital art.  Simple, yes?  Keep it simple.  The words don't have to sound cool - that's the project's job.

To be fair, "digital painting" is a specific form of digital art, as distinct from art created via 3D modeling and rendering, or art created via a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator. Digital painting refers to actually painting pixels and laying down color using a program like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter. Of all the ways to create digital art, this process most closely mimics painting with real-life media such as oils, watercolor or acrylics, and lends a characteristc hand-worked look to the images since the color and tones in the images are actually laid down by hand.

And just as with traditional painting, the painting can be done in a manner that is realistic or one that is stylized/abstracted. I didn't get the context of the original posting since it was edited by the time I got to it, but I read "digitally painted in hyper reality" as meaning the art pieces are rendered realistically using digital painting methods. So while it does sound like some buzzword gobbledygook, it's actually an accurate representation of how this particular art is being created.

ok, so how does Kickstarter work when they get MORE money than they need? If someone pledged NOW even though they reached their goal, do they still get a deck?

Yes, everyone who pledges gets the reward associated with that pledge, regardless of how much above the goal the funding has reached. With Kickstarter projects that are actual tangible products, like playing cards, more funding and pledges just means more people who are getting the product being produced. At the rate the Founders deck is going, it will probably reach $80,000 in total funding by the time it's all said and done, with probably 1500-2000 backers. That's my prediction anyway. ;-)

Quote from: Samurai007 on February 15, 2013, 03:22:22 AM

Quote from: Zaid on February 14, 2013, 03:01:14 PM

This deck is almost fully funded in only 4 days, $12,000+! That seems to indicate that the price really isn't a barrier for most people.

If you think of it as $10 for the deck and $3 for shipping, it's no different than any other deck.

But many KS decks are $10 INCLUDING the shipping...  And decks bought elsewhere tend to run in about the same ballpark when shipping's included.  This is still a bit on the high side for a deck, but apparently the design's struck a chord on Kickstarter.  The right concept can take off like a skyrocket.

Indeed. They're at $14,715 as of now, i.e. fully funded. Could this be the next Pedale Design deck?

And for comparison, my SurrealScapes deck has a bunch of early bird slots at $8 and $9 per deck, INCLUDING shipping, and I'm not getting anywhere near the amount of backers per day as the Founders deck is getting, and those early bird slots are not sold out. It all comes down to the content. Content is king.

This deck is almost fully funded in only 4 days, $12,000+! That seems to indicate that the price really isn't a barrier for most people.

Thank you all for your support! I'll be pounding the pavement to get the word out!

Pacis, thank you for the kind words! I've put a lot of effort into this deck and I hope it gets funded!

Don, there are plenty of early bird slots, so unless this deck is ridiculously popular, I'm sure you'll be able to get on on early bird pricing.It will be 1pm when the campaign launches. What time do you wake up? 

Quote from: Zaid on February 08, 2013, 03:58:22 PM

I just received my mockup deck from the USPCC with the embossed finish and the problem is that since there is so much black, there really is a lot of glare on the card when viewed from a certain angle. At those angles, all you can see is the texture on the card, not the image itself. So that's what I'm worried about.

I don't think this would be a problem on cards with light backgrounds.

Maybe you should buy a deck with Ivory (smooth) finish and compare it with your test deck (I mean dark areas of pictures). Not the best but a cheaper variant of comparative test. Or you can use Zazzle and one of your pictures for a back of cards (actually I don't know if they use Ivory finish; Don?).

Yes, I already have that. I did a small run of decks with Quality Playing Cards a few months and did those cards with the smooth finish. So between that deck and this mockup deck from USPCC, I can compare the two. There is no question that smooth finish makes the images look better. The question is whether making the cards with smooth finish will limit its appeal to the hardcore card people.

-Z

Folks,

What you do think about cards in an embossed (i.e. Air-Cushion, Magic) finish versus smooth? For my SurrealScapes deck, I want the cards to handle in a way people are used to so I'd like to specify embossed finish, but the embossed finish does detract slightly from the quality of the images.

I personally think that embossed finish cards feel higher-class than smooth finish cards, and I would suspect that smooth finish cards don't handle well, but the embossed finish does causes some problems with the images on my cards. When held at a certain angle, the embossed finish induces a lot of distruptive glare on the card and you can't see the image clearly. At a different angle, you can see the image clearly, but there is still the texture that the embossed finish introduces on the card face, and thus you don't get the image in its full crispness. I think its still okay, but since this particular deck is about the artwork itself, I want to make sure that it's given the best chance to look as good as it can while still being functional.

If you haven't seen it already, check out the Kickstarter preview here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/274810086/1490748867?token=cde2743e

-Z

Like the new back! The kind of wave effect it creates is really cool.
Any plan for the ace of spades, number, or court cards yet?

Hmm, speaking of waves, you might try arranging the logo symbols in something other than a rectilinear grid pattern, like some sort of wave pattern. That would play some interesting visual tricks on the eye during flourishes. At the very least, consider setting the grid pattern at an angle to distrup the strict left-right/up-down quality of it.

Okay, folks, I'll be looking to submit this project for approval in the next few days. I'm waiting for the mockup deck to come back from USPCC. Hopefully I'll get it later this week. Last call for any feedback on the project details/rewards before this goes off to the Kickstarter approval police. 

Here's the project link again: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/274810086/1490748867?token=cde2743e

Once it's approved, I'll come back to you guys with a launch date and time.

Quote from: Zaid on February 03, 2013, 01:19:55 AM

My intention is not to have anything about this project be limited. Frankly, I don't buy into the whole limited thing, I think it tends to be overhyped, and it's only the word of the creator that you have to go by, i.e. that they "promise" to never reissue the deck or the uncuts or whatever. I understand that collectors want things to be rare, but I think that rarity should come by accident, e.g. a printing mistake on the deck, or some weird thing that happens that probably won't ever happen again. I don't believe in forced rarity, because it is just that: forced.

So whoever wants a deck or an uncut can have one! Unless, of course, you no longer want one because you now know it's not limited. :-)

-Z

OK, understood - but the nature of Kickstarter funding is usually such that most projects are limited edition releases because the people making them only get enough funding for one shot, no more.  You may not be limiting the actual number in the sense that you'll make as many as people are willing to pay for, but it is limited in the sense that you probably won't have the resources to make this same exact deck the same way again.  So, for example, if you get 3,480 pledged decks and 149 pledged uncuts, that's how many decks and uncuts will exist (not counting what you set aside for yourself, of course).  And even if you do manage to make it again, some people will still view these decks and uncuts from this project as the "first edition" USPC version of the deck, giving them some sort of distinction from whatever comes later.

But none of that really matters in the long run - you're making a deck, hooray!  It's a great-looking deck and I can't wait to pledge for it.

I can understand that. I would hope that this deck continues to sell long after the Kickstarter campaign and that I can just keep doing runs with the USPCC to restock whenever I need to replenish inventory because of such brisk sales. ;-) Well, a guy can wish, can't he? Or maybe the uncuts are so popular that I have to tell the USPCC that they shouldn't even bother with printing the tuckbox because all 2500 decks in the run should be uncut sheets. Hmm....

-Z